Ryan Anderson: 'We have the ability to beat' Golden State

The Houston Rockets open up their season against the Golden State Warriors and are more than excited to face the defending champions. While the Rockets bring in a few new faces to their rotation, they’re not that worried.

“It takes more time than just the preseason to get adjusted, but that’s the beauty of a long season ahead,” Ryan Anderson said. “It’s not going to be perfect right out of the get-go and, even look at a team like Golden State, it took them a while to get to where they’re at. They just didn’t come together and start playing like this so, for us, we want to obviously keep building on what we know we can do and we’re really confident. This is a group that really likes each other on and off the court and we have really, really high hopes.”

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As far as tomorrow’s game, Golden State is the team to beat and this will obviously be a very good test to really see the the Rockets’ development and how their defense will match up against a juggernaut like the Warriors.

“There’s obviously a lot of excitement, they’re the team to beat right now in the NBA so, for us, we have our new players and our new guys, we’re getting adjusted,” Anderson said. “This is our very first game. Win or lose, it’s going to be big news both ways. For us, regardless of the outcome, we want to come out and play the best basketball that we can and continue to improve and get better. We have such a great group, we’re confident in this group and we know that we have the ability to beat a team like Golden State. It’s going to be fun tomorrow, it’s going to be high-energy, intense, but it is going to be a challenge for us.”

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The Rockets are coming off a preseason where they were very hot shooting the ball. They accumulated a 4-1 record and blew their opponents out of the water most nights. As for the team’s progress on their goals thus far and expectations for opening night, Anderson was cautiously optimistic.

“I think we’re thinking about just us and how to play the best basketball we can with this group,” he said. “We know we’ve improved from last year offensively and defensively. We have so many different players who can do so many different things and you can’t control the 82 games coming up. You have to go day-by-day and just try to get better each day and I think we’ve done that.”

📽 Ryan Anderson talks about opening the season vs. Golden State and the chemistry the squad has built through the preseason. pic.twitter.com/L4OpQkLD0a